Plus The Last Stand, The Thousand Mile War, the Haunting of Molly Hartley, Paratrooper, Xenocide, internet glasses, Weddings, the secret to enjoying baseball and less in this unusual Wednesday diary!

Poll: Favorite thing in the Arthurian mythos?

It was a good, lazy weekend, staying up late to drink rum and cokes and margaritas while watching Mists of Avalon miniseries certainly contributed. The beer is still unbrewed, the bike is still not running. We did get to a few garage sales and the Goodwill.

Mists of Avalon was a darn good book, and a pretty good miniseries, even though the miniseries didn't fully follow the book, though they both ended up in the same place. It's the Arthurian mythos from Morgaine's perspective, the modern analog would be Star Wars from Leia's perspective, if Vader wasn't their father but rather their son. Whoa.

It's been criticized as a work of pagan feminazi propaganda in Christian fantasy circles, and I can understand why they would say that. Still, worth reading and worth discussing.

The Mists of Avalon miniseries did have a good look, for instance the armor was studded leather, unlike in Excalibur from the 80's where Arthur and his knights were running around in full plate. Mrs. Ha didn't care for the fighting scenes, and the miniseries took some liberties there wrt to Morgaine, but I thought they were well done.

They should have cast more people to play the leads, since they go from childhood to being aged. Or maybe they could have used better makeup, they had Julieanne Margulies play Morgaine from a fourteen year old to someone in her 60's, yet she almost always looked to be in her 20s or 30s.

We have two weddings to go to in the very late summer and fall. One this weekend is for my younger cousin (the one with the pink shotgun on FB), the other is for Irish_girl. This is the cousin's second wedding, the first was four years ago when I was in the midst of many issues, including crippling arthritis, I ended up sitting around with all the other crippled folk and not having much fun. This time it will be just me and Mrs. Ha, we can go crazy, but we won't. Despite being PA's second largest city, there isn't much to do there unless you're into hunting, fishing, drinking or Elk Watching.

Irish_Girl is getting married, her nuptials are set for October. She asked Mrs. Ha to be in the wedding, too. More details as they arrive. We're psyched, she deserves happiness.

Internet glasses

My prescription sunglasses arrived when we were gone, I'm still getting used to them. They took a long time to get to me, longer than fourteen year olds. Then again, fourteen year old's sunglasses weren't as complex as mine, her eyes are not nearly as bad. I'm not sure it's a fair comparison.

The prices were good, $40 for hers, $80 for mine.

In other optical news, she's been at swim practice for a few hours a day, every day, for the Varsity swim team. She's complained about the difficulty of seeing things, we think she's lobbying for contacts, but I bought her some corrective swim goggles.

In other child news, today was the first day of school for nine year old. We weren't supposed to get the bus for elementary school, but they changed their mind after seeing the expressway interchange she was supposed to traverse. She got the bus this morning, and even hugged the driver, who we've had for 7-8 years.

We were intrigued when a male called for fourteen year old last night, but it was just the tree cutting service saying they would need access to our backyard when they take down our neighbors tree. That's the third big tree taken down in and adjacent to our yard in as many years. Here comes sunshine.

The secret to enjoying baseball

Last week I went to see our local minor league team play, the third time I've attended a game of professional baseball. This time I enjoyed myself, the secret was to spend twice as much on beer as you do on tickets.

The first time was close to 30 years ago, I was in high school, and underage. Some of the seniors may have been old enough, the drinking age was 18 before the "States Rights, get the Federal Government out of our lives" group took the Executive branch and decided State's Rights didn't apply to letting the states decide when on ewas old enough to buy alcohol.

The second time was in 1987 maybe, as a co-op for the FAA my group had a yearly trip to opening day at Yankee Stadium. I chose not to buy beer.

Yesterday though, beer was $6.50, and the ticket was $6.50, a pint of Oktoberfest and a pint of IPA, along with milf watching made the day pass.

On to other media reviews!

The Last Stand is my first book on Custer. I liked it, Custer did come off as a poor leader and egomaniac, and Sitting Bull is close to a hero. Custer dies

The Thousand-Mile War was about the Aluetian Campaign in WWII, yes, the Japanese invaded North America. What a horrid place to fight.

Xenocide is the third book in Orson Scott Card's Enders series. Humanity is trying to destroy the world Ender lives on, since it harbors very dangerous virii. His sister comes to visit, but it will be tough, can Ender and his sister stave off the rest of humanity, with only an omniscient computer network and the ability to wish for anything you want for on his side?

Major league game, major league price. Reasonably good seats mean you can see the plays.
Minor league game, minor league price. Reasonably good seats* mean you can call balls and strikes from where you are sitting.

Wumpus

* seats bought "to be behind the screen and safe from foul balls".
- full disclosure: My old major league team managed to clinch their 13th straight losing season in August.

I remember reading that in high school. One of my teachers was horrified to find out that it was the Arthurian legend told from the viewpoint of a witch.

When my mother and her partner first made a lifetime commitment to each other, they both changed their first and last names. My mother chose Morgan, largely because of the depiction of Morgaine in Mysts of Avalon.

Presently, my favorite bit of the Arhturian myth is the tale of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight which is really only tangentially related. A close runner up is all the historical research to try to untangle the "real" King Arthur.

...

As for baseball games, the only times I've been to one have been when I've gotten tickets for free. The doubling of zero dollars doesn't buy much beer. OTOH, the last time also included free Sam Adams cherry wheat on tap. Oh, how I sometimes miss the dot com era.

There is no more degenerate kind of state than that in which the richest are supposed to be the best.Cicero, The Republic

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